Mother too jumps in; both die

Residents of New Street in Muthumari Amman Colony, Aminjikarai were grief-stricken here on Wednesday as they watched the body of a two-year-old girl being taken to hospital after it was fished out of a well.

The bodies of the child and her mother were found inside an unused well at their house on Tuesday night. Police suspect it is a case of suicide, with the woman throwing in the child and then jumping in herself. The cause is suspected to be the child's birth defect. She was born with bent legs.

Aminjikarai police identified the deceased as Kanagavalli (22) and her daughter Dakshini (2).

Kanagavalli's husband Arumugam (30), a tailor, returned from work around 9.30 p.m. on Tuesday and realised that his wife and their second child were missing while his elder son Gokul Raj (4) was asleep. “After a brief search Arumugam spotted Dakshini floating inside the 60 ft well in the house and alerted the police. Local residents jumped into the well and brought out the child's body,” said R. Mannar Mannan, Inspector of Police, Aminjikarai.

As the woman was still missing, police suspected her body could be inside the well. Fire and Rescue personnel were called and Kanagavalli's body was fished out of the well at around 11.30 p.m. after an hour-long effort, the Inspector added.

The victim's neighbours said Kanagavalli was upset over her daughter Dakshini's birth defect and had often talked about it to the women in the neighbourhood. “The couple consulted many doctors and are known to have set a date for her surgery on April 7 to correct the problem,” a neighbour added.

Police suspected that Kanagavalli killed the child by throwing her into the well and then jumped inside because she believed her child's defect couldn't be corrected.

Police registered a case and sent the bodies to the Government Kilpauk Hospital for post-mortem.